Chronicling America Update

Exciting new additions from Tennessee now available on Chronicling America!

Most of the newspapers in TNDP Phase III date from the WWI era. However, there are a couple of exceptions, both of which are now available online.

Tennessee Staatszeitung. April 6, 1866.

The Tennessee Staatszeitung is a German-language newspaper published in Nashville after the Civil War. Written almost exclusively in German, and printed using the fraktur typeface, the paper provided news about Tennessee, the U.S., and worldwide events for the state’s German-speaking immigrants. As well as news, there are many advertisements, a large proportion of which are for local (many German-immigrant-owned) businesses. Many of the ads are for breweries and saloons, which provided a major source of income for German-language newspapers throughout the country. Unfortunately, when prohibition was introduced years later, many German-language newspapers found it hard to stay afloat without the revenue from these businesses. Read more about U.S. historical German-language newspapers, here, in Leah Weinryb Grohsgal’s essay (National Endowment for the Humanities).

The Chilhowee Echo was published at the turn of the 19th/20th century by and for Knoxville women. The paper’s inaugural issue clearly states that is purpose is not political, “This is not a ‘woman’s rights’ paper […]; it is not an advocate of woman suffrage, and it has no special mission as a reformer.” However, the paper’s publishers did reserve the right “to make such comment on matters political as it may deem fit and proper.”

Chilhowee Echo. May 12, 1900.

The few extant issues of the Echo (about a dozen, all of which can be found on Chronicling America), offer a variety of poetry and prose, articles about literature and the arts, social news and events, club news, and advertisements.